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“Oh,” said Mr. Twine, as he exchanged a look of concern with his wife. No loving parent likes to see their child being visited by the strong arm of the law.

“Could I have a quick word with your daughter in private?” asked Odelia now.

Reluctantly, the two complied and left the room. And then it was just us and Laia.

“Is he… dead?” asked Laia anxiously.

“I’m afraid so,” said Odelia.

“They’re not telling me anything,” the girl said, and then her face sort of crumpled and she burst into loud sobs.

Odelia supplied her with a paper tissue and a glass of water, and patted her arm consolingly.

“I found him, you know,” said Laia finally. “I came home and he was on the floor, and I immediately knew he was dead. Though of course I was still hoping against hope it wasn’t true. But there was so much blood…”

“You were also attacked by the same person?”

“No, whoever did this to Jay must have left by then. The door was open, which was strange, and then when I walked in and I found him like that, the world suddenly turned dark. I woke up right here, in the hospital, with Mommy and Daddy by my side, which was just the strangest thing.”

“Of course they would be by your side, sweetie,” said Odelia. “They’re your parents.”

“The last time we spoke, we said the most awful things to each other. I didn’t think I’d ever see them again.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Odelia, when the girl started softly weeping again.

“This is all my fault. It must be the same person who sent that blackmail letter. If we’d gone to the police like you told us, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“You think it was the blackmailer?”

“Don’t you? He must have come to get his money, and when Jay refused to pay, he killed him.”

“You didn’t notice anything suspicious? No one hanging around the loft?”

“No, nothing. And I wanted to go to the police, I really did, but Jay said no. He said that if we went to the police our lives would be over. They’d arrest us for trying to scam the insurance company and we’d both go to prison.”

The door to the hospital room opened and Laia’s parents walked back in. “I think that’s quite enough, Mrs. Kingsley,” said Laia’s mom, taking the lead. “Our daughter needs to rest.”

“Of course,” said Odelia. She gave Laia a gentle hug. “We’ll talk soon,” she promised.

And after casting a final glance at Laia, surrounded by her family, we walked out.

“You didn’t tell her about that second phone” I reminded Odelia as we passed along the corridor.

“It didn’t feel like a good time to bring that up,” she said. “She’s had a great shock, and what she needs to do right now is to rest and recover.”

And so we drove back to Tucker Street, where the investigation was still in full swing.

Abe had confirmed, based on a preliminary investigation, that the murder weapon was consistent with the kind of heavy granite stone used to repave the street, and when we arrived, Chase was leading a team looking for the murder weapon.

The search ended at the bank of the canal which was located across the street and where he was now staring into the dark pool of water.

“Any luck?” asked Odelia as we joined him.

“I have this hunch that our murder weapon is at the bottom of this canal,” he said.

“I talked to Laia, but she doesn’t know what happened. When she got here, the killer had already left, and when she saw her fianc?’s body, she fainted, which is why the neighbor thought she was dead, too.”

“Did you tell her about the second phone?”

“No, she’s still in shock from what happened to Jay. It didn’t seem like a good time to spring that on her.”

“Good call,” he grunted as he dragged a hand through his shaggy mane. “Okay, so we better tell your uncle about this whole insurance scam business now.”

“Do you think Jay’s murder and the scam are connected?”

“It’s certainly possible,” said Chase.

“Laia thinks the blackmailer is also Jay’s killer. That he dropped by the place to make good on his threat and when Jay didn’t want to cough up, he killed him.”

“Let’s put your uncle in possession of all the facts pertaining to the case,” Chase suggested, “so he can decide how to proceed.” He glanced over to his wife. “Though from where I’m standing Laia has just shot to the top of my suspect list.”

“Yeah, I thought she would,” said Odelia with a sigh.

“It’s not inconceivable that Loretta Everyman was involved in the scam, and that she was the second person who broke in here last night, and grabbed the necklace when Dylon Pipe took a nasty tumble. And if that’s the case, it’s possible that Jay was trying to scam not only the insurance, but also his fianc?e, and was planning to dump her the moment the insurance paid out, and leave town with Loretta. And if Laia found out, she might have flown into a rage and killed him.”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time,” said Odelia, whose heart clearly bled for Laia. “Let’s talk to my uncle and see what he thinks.”

“And then we have to go back and save Harriet!” Dooley cried, clearly not caring one bit about these humans killing each other over a piece of jewelry.